The Influence of Government Health Expenditure on Economic Growth

In the critical period of global economic structure reform and China’s economic and social development, the influence of government health expenditure on economic growth has attracted much attention. This paper constructs a model based on the Cobb-Douglas production function and selects panel data of 293 prefecture-level cities from 2012 to 2022 for empirical analysis. The results show that the increase in government medical and health expenditure has a stable pulling effect on economic growth. For every 1% increase in government medical and health expenditure, the GDP of each region increases by 0.096%. The research shows that the increase of government medical and health expenditure has significant heterogeneity in economic growth, with the western region having the strongest promoting effect and the eastern region having the weakest. The promotion effect of underdeveloped areas is significant, but it is not obvious in moderately developed and developed areas. Therefore, it is suggested to implement a regional differentiated investment strategy, optimize expenditure structure, strengthen the management and supervision of health resources, and promote the coordinated development of medical and health undertakings and the economy.